It seems Rihanna didn’t want to let go of the idea as she retweeted a fan’s idea to get Issa Rae, the creator and executive producer of Insecure, on board.

Rae then replied with a Gif of a cat manically typing, which made Rihanna blush.

Image copyrightTwitter

The idea of a movie based on the photo had been around on Tumblr when the photo was first published – but now the main players have got involved it looks like Twitter may have cast and created a movie.

But with so many fan ideas contributed who takes credit for the concept and gets a cut of the profits?

Most of the fans on Twitter though are just desperate to see it happen.

Viewing figures

So, to keep things simple, we’ll just stick to how many people watched each episode of this series live, on the night it was first broadcast.

An average of 2.8 million tuned in to the launch – a strong opening for the series, but a peak it didn’t manage to match throughout the rest of its run.

Ratings were reasonably stable for the following four episodes, but they dropped significantly for the final two.

Top Gear, series 24: Overnight ratings

Episode one (5 March)

2.8 million

Episode two (12 March)

2.7 million

Episode three (19 March)

2.4 million

Episode four (26 March)

2.3 million

Episode five (2 April)

2.6 million

Episode six (16 April – Easter Sunday)

1.6 million

Episode seven (23 April)

1.9 million

This could be down to the gap in the middle of the series – there was no episode on 9 April because of Golf: The Masters 2017. It seems many viewers didn’t return to Top Gear after that.

But what everybody really wants to know about the viewing figures, of course, is how they compare with previous series.

The last season, fronted by Chris Evans, opened with a bumper 4.4 million viewers, considerably more than this year’s series launch.

Image caption
Many viewers and critics called for Reid to be given more screen time

However, it’s worth noting the viewing figures for the Evans-fronted season had more than halved by the end, with 1.9 million tuning in to the finale.

No episode in the era fronted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May had fewer than 2 million viewers.

Indeed, an impressive 5.3 million watched the trio’s farewell in 2015 – a figure that none of the presenting line-ups have come close to since.

But programme bosses will likely be happy that five of this season’s seven episodes attracted more than 2 million viewers, giving this series a strong and relatively stable audience in comparison to last year.

Plus – once iPlayer figures are taken into account, the figures for the latest series will go up considerably. The first episode alone added nearly a million extra viewers to the live TV audience. Figures for the later episodes in the series will follow soon.

Critical reviews

Critics have responded positively to the revamped Top Gear – although some also had a few suggestions about how it could improve going forward.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Ed Power said: “Top Gear finished its latest season in better fettle than anyone could have predicted in the wake of last year’s disastrous Chris Evans-fronted reboot.

“Week by week the crew has visibly gained in confidence and the concluding instalment was arguably the most enjoyable yet.”

The Radio Times‘s Frances Taylor wrote: “It’s undeniable that the presenters’ dynamic has improved… but there’s something still jarring a little.

“The biggest problems have been ironed out this series, and what we’ve been left with is a largely enjoyable and watchable hour of Sunday night TV.

“It won’t take much to give it a tweak here and a buff there and with a little help, Top Gear could well be at the top of its game come series 25.”

Tom Eames from Digital Spy agreed the show still needs some work, but said it’s broadly going in the right direction.

“Rory Reid needs far more screen time, and they need to invest in more films that include all three of the main hosts,” he suggested.

“Plus – fewer obviously-scripted segments, more ad-libbed journeys, more interesting celebrities (or no celebrity segment at all) and you’ve got yourself a brilliant car show. It’s so very nearly there, and we’ll definitely be up for more in 2018.”

Fans’ reaction

Image caption
The Stig stayed with the show after the departure of Clarkson, Hammond and May

Viewers were mostly positive about the latest series, although many said there was still room for further improvement.

Matthew tweeted: “If someone said to me 5 years ago that Matt LeBlanc would save Top Gear, I would have laughed and thought they were mental, but he has!”

“Brilliant series, well done guys! Restored as great entertainment and fun car show. A bit like the old days, only better,” added Brook.

Katherine said: “It’s a big improvement on the last series. Still wooden though.”

But Andy wrote: “I’d hardly say Top Gear has been saved. There has been a lot of viewers moved to The Grand Tour. It’s not Top Gear with out Clarkson, Hammond or May.”

So, has Matt LeBlanc really “saved” Top Gear?

Image caption
The Telegraph’s Ed Power said the three presenters have “finally gelled”

Well, partly. He’s certainly a more popular front man than Chris Evans was on the last series.

But it would be unfair to give him all the credit for the warmer critical and viewer reaction this year.

Reid has been a crucial ingredient, with many fans agreeing he should be given more time on screen.

Harris is also a key factor, with Eames commenting that he “has clearly been eyed as the show’s lead when it comes to credibility”.

There’s also the total studio revamp the show has had – giving it a glossier, more colourful and polished feel.

Image caption
The last episode of the current series was watched by an average of 1.9 million viewers

Perhaps most importantly, however, the reason the show has had a much stronger series this year is it has not been put under so much scrutiny as before.

Tabloid interest in the Chris Evans series was high, and there were many negative headlines about the show’s various troubles and viewing figures.

But away from the glare of the media spotlight, it appears to be finally bedding in.

It has found its feet – and its audience. The show now has a core viewer base and appears to have finally won over critics and fans.

We’ll wait and see whether its upward streak can continue when the 25th series begins next spring.

To Ray Davies, America is a ‘beautiful but dangerous’ place

Image caption
Ray Davies’ new album contrasts the America of his childhood dreams to the reality he discovered while living in New Orleans

“Sorry, I’m chewing gum,” says Ray Davies five minutes into our interview, before extracting the offending substance from his mouth.

It’s a fitting interruption. We’re here to talk about his latest album, Americana, which charts his love-hate relationship with the US – and there’s nothing more American than chomping on a stick of Wrigley’s.

Of course, our most recently-ennobled rock star is best known for his writing about England on songs like Waterloo Sunset, Muswell Hillbilly, Sunny Afternoon, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, but his obsession with the States started early.

As a schoolboy, he was captivated by black and white cowboy movies and the be-bop records his older sisters would bring home.

After receiving a guitar for his 13th birthday, he devoured records by Muddy Waters and Slim Harpo. His love affair with the blues was so strong that when he wrote The Kinks’ first hit single, You Really Got Me he intended it to be “a blues song”.

“Then it turned out to be a pop hit.”

Somewhat disingenuously, he tells the BBC You Really Got Me was supposed to be The Kinks’ only song (even though it was their third single).

“I wanted that to be a hit and then I was going to get out of town,” he says.

“Unfortunately they asked me to write another one, and another one.”

Image copyrightAFP

Image caption
The star recently received a knighthood for services to music

The Kinks’ success meant Ray and his younger brother Dave could finally visit the Land of the Free – but things didn’t go entirely to plan, as he describes on the new album.

“They called us The Invaders, as though we came from another world,” he sings. “And the man from immigration shouted out, ‘Hey punk, are you a boy or a girl?'”

The band could have overcome the prejudice if they weren’t already in disarray – prone to fighting on stage, and let down by a promoter who refused to pay them in cash.

Things came to a head while taping Dick Clark’s TV show Where The Action Is in 1965.

“Some guy who said he worked for the TV company walked up and accused us of being late,” Davies wrote in his autobiography X-Ray.

“Then he started making anti-British comments. Things like ‘Just because the Beatles did it, every mop-topped, spotty-faced limey juvenile thinks he can come over here and make a career for himself.'”

A punch was thrown, and the American Federation of Musicians refused to issue the Kinks permits to perform in the US for the next four years.

“Being a bolshie 21-year-old, I said, ‘Let’s make records and tour the rest of the world’.

“But deep down I was really hurt, because America was the inspiration for much of our music.”

Image caption
The Kinks’ hits included Sunny Afternoon, All Day and All of the Night and Set Me Free

When the band were finally allowed back, in 1970, they had to start from scratch, plying their trade in tiny clubs and high school gymnasiums.

“It was quite a humbling experience after being really successful before,” Davies recalls.

Yet the US became the band’s lifeline in the 1970s, providing adulation, success and financial reward as interest dwindled at home.

“We ended up playing Madison Square Garden in 1980, which is a sign you’ve made it back. So it was a 10-year programme. It was hard work but, in a strange way, we built a loyal fanbase in that time.”

So perhaps it’s no surprise that Davies sings “I want to make my home/Where the buffalo roam” on the title track of his new album.

Near-death experience

Indeed, he moved to the US for several years, finding his spiritual home – and sanctuary – in New Orleans.

Ray Davies on writing lyrics

“Nobody taught me how to write songs, I sort of picked it up as I went along – but it always helps me to have a narrative and a subplot. It helps me through the song, rather than just writing a catchy verse or chorus. So you could say I’m guilty of excessive back story.”

“I’m just another person there, which is really nice,” he says. “And I fitted in with the music scene.”

Living across the road from a church, he would frequently witness the city’s brass band funerals, which stretch through the streets in celebration of local musicians and dignitaries at the end of their life.

But his sojourn in the city ended badly one Sunday evening in January 2004.

Davies was strolling along an unusually deserted Burgundy Street with his girlfriend Suzanne Despies.

A car pulled up alongside them, a young man got out, and demanded Despies’ purse. She handed it over without any resistance, but Davies suddenly decided to give chase.

His assailant was armed, and shot Davies in the leg, breaking his femur.

“Why did I do it? That’s the unanswerable question,” he says.

“I’ve never really been the sort of person who would chase a man with a loaded gun. But I did. Foolishly, perhaps, and irresponsibly. But I did it.

“It was one of those heat of the moment situations, and I have no explanation other than that.”

Image copyrightSteve Gullick

Image caption
Americana, is based on Davies’ 2013 memoir of the same name

He ended up in hospital, heavily drugged and, for the first 24 hours, an anonymous “John Doe”.

The experience informed a song – Mystery Room – in which the star faces his mortality for the first time: “My brain’s hit a brick wall / My body’s in free-fall.”

It’s partnered with another track, Rock ‘N’ Roll Cowboys, which equates ageing rock stars with gunslingers about to hang up their holsters.

“Rock and roll cowboys, where do you go now?” asks Davies. “Do you give up the chase like an old retiree? Or do you stare in the face of new adversaries?“

It’s a question that’s flummoxed many of his 60s contemporaries. Has he ever contemplated giving up?

“Every writer who’s written and toured for more than five years reaches a point where they think, ‘Do I keep going?’ or, ‘Where do I go next?'” he says.

“Every day I wake up and say, ‘I love writing songs but do I want to do this?’ and the answer is I do.

“I love making records. I love playing in front of people.”

America is ‘off-kilter’

For the new record, he sought the help of alt-country stalwarts The Jayhawks, whose deft arrangements provide a rich backdrop to Davies’ wry and incisive lyrics.

Was it challenging, I wonder, for him to walk in and take charge of an already-established band?

“It was a diplomatic situation,” he says… well, diplomatically.

“At first, they were trying to sound English in their backing vocals, but I deterred them from that.

“The reason I picked them is because they just play the songs. They don’t embellish too much unless I ask them to, which is great.”

Image copyrightSony Music

Image caption
The star hopes to tour with the Jayhawks later this year. ‘If the diaries coincided, it would be wonderful.’

The Americana sessions went so well that there are “another 20” songs waiting to be finished and released, all derived from Davies’s 2013 book of the same name.

“It’s a big work, but I hope it’ll be put together for a deluxe record later on.”

Is he tempted to write something more topical for that record, given the ongoing political turmoil in the US?

“Everyone who knows my work comes up to me and says: ‘It’s time to revive Preservation,'” he says, referring to The Kinks’ 1973 concept album and tour, in which a comedian becomes a dictator, funded by big business and using the media as a tool of control.

“It was a fun show but it had quite serious undertones,” says Davies, “and I think that sums up America at the moment: it’s a fun show with very serious undertones.

Entertainment news round-up: 16 – 22 April

Harry Styles achieved a double success with his first solo single; action-packed movie Fate of the Furious smashed global box office records; a mascara advert featuring Cara Delevingne was banned; fans of crime drama Broadchurch were impressed but bereft as the third and final series concluded – and much more…

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Here’s a round-up of some things you might have missed:

Image copyrightCalvin Klein

Image caption
An advert for Calvin Klein underwear featuring 73-year-old Lauren Hutton, along with Kirsten Dunst and Rashida Jones from The Office

Was ITV’s The Nightly Show a success?

ITV’s The Nightly Show didn’t get off to the strongest start – but its fortunes improved over its eight-week run.

The new entertainment series, which ended on Friday after being broadcast every week night since February in the 10pm slot normally occupied by the news, saw a different celebrity take over presenting duties each week.

Topical segments

Image caption
The Oscars mix-up occurred the evening before The Nightly Show launched

One of the benefits of producing a show which is recorded on the same day it’s broadcast is the writers’ ability to put in jokes about the day’s news events.

Taylor says: “A show like this lives and dies by the writing, and The Nightly Show was billed as a topical programme, but there was hardly any topicality in it.”

“The Oscars gaffe, which happened the day before their first show, was such a gift as a topic, but David Walliams could only come up with a couple of poor envelope swapping gags.”

She compares it to the pastiche The Late Late Show did in the US, where Corden dressed up as Emma Stone and sang a parody song about the Oscars mix-up, which Taylor says was a stronger treatment.

“If The Nightly Show comes back it needs to play on the topicality. The fact this is filmed a couple of hours before transmission, they’re not maximising that opportunity.”

But Duthie says: “In the US you have teams and teams of people writing the opening monologues, which is a luxury that most British shows don’t have.”

Timeslot

Image copyrightItv

Image caption
Jason Manford hosted the show in its penultimate week

ITV pushed the News at Ten back by half an hour to make room for The Nightly Show as part of the broadcaster’s initiative to try out what it calls “Five Nights of New” schedule.

But, says Duthie, where The Nightly Show was concerned, it may have suffered due to its chosen timeslot. The most successful chat shows in the US start much later in the evening.

“In the UK we’re much more conservative,” she says. “By 10:30pm, peak time is over. But if a show is on later, you’re catching people coming home from the pub late at night, and a lot of younger viewers.”

She adds that part of the problem facing any new nightly entertainment show is the difference in audience expectation between the UK and the US.

‘Knives are out’

“We’ve gotten so used to watching light-hearted entertainment shows on Friday and Saturdays that a lot of British viewers aren’t used to upbeat, happy content on a Monday evening,” Duthie says.

“Also, perhaps the networks wouldn’t pay for original programming at 11:30pm in the UK – budgets are usually spent by about 10:30.”

But, she praised ITV for being willing to try something new in the first place: “As much as I love the News at Ten, it wasn’t performing very well for ITV, so commercially it was a good decision to look at that 10 o’clock slot.”

ITV’s director of TV Kevin Lygo told Broadcast magazine: “In terms of The Nightly Show, this eight-week run is about extending the 10pm hour, extending the primetime feel of ITV, and seeing how that looks and feels during this period and how viewers respond to something other than repeats, alongside the News.

“The intention was to make that hour feel a bit fresh and different with some stunt scheduling and I think we’ve done that.

“After the run has finished we’ll obviously look at the shows and all the data and discuss what next.

“The broader point is – TV is a risk business, you need to try new things, and launch them with confidence and visibility to give them the best chance of success.

“And you’ve got keep doing that, and we will.”

Social media presence

Image copyrightBBC / PA

Image caption
John Bishop and Bradley Walsh presented The Nightly Show during its run

US chat show hosts – from Ellen DeGeneres to Jimmy Fallon – now depend heavily on building a strong online following to match their viewing figures.

The Nightly Show had mixed fortunes on this front, with some segments not attracting many views, but others going viral worldwide.

At the time of writing, a compilation of Ramsay’s best pranks during his week on the show has attracted 3.4 million views.

Fay Ripley giving parenting tips to John Bishop, in contrast, has had just a couple of hundred views.

But while social media success can give a show a huge boost, it can also cause the problem of shows being judged too quickly.

“Now you get such a snap decision with everything,” says Taylor. “If something isn’t immediately funny, you see people all over Twitter saying ‘this is rubbish’.

“Social media can be great because you can build an audience for a show and make it an underground hit, like Fleabag.

“But conversely, when you’ve got something high profile that people don’t enjoy, the knives are out.

“To some extent, all publicity is good publicity, but if a show can’t breathe, it will put people off. Once that dies down, more people are likely to come to it naturally.”

But the ITV spokesman said the show’s online clip performance had been “impressive, amassing more than 40 million views in total for its online content across various platforms, and more than 50,000 subscribers and followers”.

“The figures reflected the viral nature of the content. The John Legend/Gordon Ramsay sketch accrued more than 16.5 million views on Facebook. It was shared over 310,000 times.

“The Gordon Ramsay Blender clip accrued over 4.3 million views on Facebook. It also trended at number one worldwide on YouTube for three days as well as accruing over 3.5 million views on YouTube.

“It was the most talked about video on the Internet for the weekend of 1-2 April.”

As for The Nightly Show’s future, ITV says it will make a decision after the series has ended, adding: “We don’t normally make decisions on recommissions until after a series has ended.”

UK music industry braced for Brexit

Whether you consume music digitally or collect vinyl records, Brexit has the potential to affect you.

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The UK music industry, like its counterparts in other countries, has had a tough time adapting to the technological shake-ups of recent years.

But now it also has to plan for the changes that will be ushered in by the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.

Obviously there is still huge uncertainty about what the country’s future relationship with the EU will be like, since its expected departure in the spring of 2019 is still subject to lengthy negotiations.

However, it is already possible to identify areas of the music business that may feel the effects.

Record shops

With the industry’s annual Record Store Day falling this year on Saturday, 22 April, record shops are enjoying a boom in sales of old-fashioned vinyl releases.

The format was widely expected to die a slow death with the advent of the CD, but in recent times, vinyl records have managed to outsell downloads.

However, when Record Store Day 2020 rolls around, there is a risk that those singles and albums could cost significantly more.

Image caption
Will these records cost more post-Brexit?

If the UK does not manage to conclude a favourable trade deal with the EU, then tariffs may be applied on goods coming into the UK.

There are now only a couple of vinyl pressing plants left on British soil, so the majority of records sold in the UK are manufactured in factories based in other EU countries. The same goes for CDs.

If tariffs on goods return, record labels will face increased costs, which they will have to pass on to consumers.

Digital music

So why buy music on physical formats anyway? This is the 21st Century, so go for streaming or downloads.

Well, even there, Brexit is likely to have consequences.

The pound has fallen in value in the wake of last June’s referendum outcome. The leading music streaming services, from Sweden’s Spotify to US-based Apple Music, are all multinational firms whose pricing policies are decided elsewhere.

In other ways, however, Brexit will have no effect at all. Many politicians and business leaders have called for the UK to preserve its access to the European single market, but in digital terms, things are more complicated.

Image copyrightReuters

Image caption
The vast majority of Spotify’s catalogue is available all over the world

And when it comes to the distribution of digital products, including music and e-books, consumers will still find that borders get in the way.

If you have an account with Amazon UK, you can buy a CD from Amazon’s French website, but it won’t allow you to buy the same music on download.

That said, streaming services are more unified. Spotify, for instance, makes practically all its catalogue accessible everywhere in the world, with some minor variations in local-language music.

But although Brussels has failed to create a digital single market for music consumers, it has done a lot for music producers.

Royalties

People who make music can make money from it in various ways. As well as selling digital or physical copies of it, they are also paid royalties every time it is played in public.

There are two kinds of these:

mechanical royalties, which you get whenever your music is reproduced on CD or vinyl, or as a download or stream

performance royalties, which you get when your song is performed live or played on radio or television

Image copyrightGetty Images

Image caption
Mechanical royalties date back to the days of piano rolls

And although there is no EU single market for digital music purchases, there is now a thriving single market for licensing music and collecting royalties on it.

In the UK, the main royalty collection society is PRS for Music. Its chief executive, Robert Ashcroft, says that the European Commission made a big difference with its Collective Rights Management Directive, which came into force in the UK in April last year.

As a result, it is now much easier to license music in many territories at once, rather than having to authorise it country by country, as was formerly the case.

PRS, for example, works in a joint venture with its counterparts in Sweden and Germany, STIM and GEMA, to operate a pan-European online music rights licensing service.

This means that songwriters and music publishing companies can get paid more quickly and accurately.

“We have already been licensing our rights on a pan-European basis,” says Mr Ashcroft. “Brexit won’t stop that and it’s not in our business interest to stop it either.”

Copyright law

The UK’s law on music copyright has changed in recent years because of Brussels.

In November 2013, UK copyright protection on sound recordings increased from 50 years to 70 years, in line with an EU directive approved in 2011.

However, recordings that had already slipped into the public domain, such as the Beatles’ first single, stayed there.

Image caption
The Beatles’ earliest recordings are now out of copyright

And there is a “use it or lose it” provision for hitherto unreleased recordings from 50 years ago. If record companies have ageing tracks in the vaults that they have never issued, then they have no comeback if other people get hold of them and release them.

Will all this change when the UK “takes back control”? PRS’s Mr Ashcroft thinks not.

“I expect it to continue unless and until someone presents an argument that it’s damaging to the economy,” he says.

Touring and nationality

One area where Brexit could have a negative impact is on touring musicians. There are fears that music groups might have to scale back European tours after Brexit and fewer European acts could travel to the UK.

“We have a very healthy business in royalties that are earned when our members’ works are performed overseas,” says PRS’s Mr Ashcroft. “If there were obstacles to British bands touring, that would be a potential challenge.”

At the same time, however, he is concerned about Brexit’s potential impact on his own organisation’s staffing levels. “Eleven per cent of our employees come from countries other than the UK. We operate daily in 13 languages. We need the prime minister to give assurances that the people resident and working here can stay.”

On that basis, he feels that the UK’s music business is well integrated with the rest of Europe and hopes it will stay that way, despite Brexit: “We are so international that we think our business transcends that.”